Monday, April 25, 2016

Singapore, surprisingly enough does have a Constitution. But I bet you, if you asked anyone there, very probably they have never even heard of it.

Of course, if anyone took a special interest in the subject, they could research it. And if they did, they would discover that nothing that is guaranteed to them in that document is ever given to them. The Constitution talks of the right to free speech, expression and assembly. But all these are not only disallowed, they are criminal activities that will land you in jail if you tried any of it.

The reason why no one there has heard of the Constitution is because the totalitarian government there, which has been running it since 1959 prefers it that way. After all it is much easier to rule a society where no one knew their rights because the State could do anything they want, lock up anybody they did not like, carry out as much racial discrimination they want against Malays and Indians, appoint Ministers and civil servants by nepotism, not their ability and be as corrupt as they want without anyone questioning them.

The reason why you cannot question them is because you didn't know you had any rights in the first place.

I was born in that island except for some years in England studying law and the rest of the time here in America. I can tell you this from personal knowledge. The average Singaporean has no political ideology. None at all. All he knows is that he is supposed to work, not commit crimes, not associate with any anti establishment activity and if possible join the state organizations and support them because open support for the government may result in your being given cushy jobs and a secure career. Just like in Communist China or the former Soviet Union. Or rather how young boys live obeying their parents.

One thing is guaranteed. If you are not seen as a threat to the establishment and have not committed any crimes, you would be pretty well left alone. It is society where the less you think and mind your own business, the better and safer for you.

On the other hand it is unwise to begin thinking of such concepts as freedom or democracy. Of course you can think as much as you want as long as your thinking is in support of the establishment. But thinking anything contrarian will lead you into trouble.

Why this state of affairs exists must be obvious. Lee Kuan Yew's son, his family and all their nepotism friends in high places are openly corrupt. By corrupt I mean they pay themselves as much as 5 times the salary of the President of the United States and much more secretly. So obviously they want to continue being corrupt and not want to lose their immense wealth by anyone questioning them.

The other reason is because of the unfortunate state of international business. For wealthy Western European and American companies wanting to invest overseas, they are looking for a compliant and obedient workforce who will not demand any rights. The more you behave like slaves, the better for them, especially when it comes to producing cheap products. It will come as no surprise that Bangladesh would be a far more attractive location for an American company than Australia. The same argument for Singapore even though they may be paid a bit more than in Bangladesh because in all other respects they are no different.

Singapore workers have no real trade unions (trade unions who support the employers and not you), they can be paid anything their employers want, they can be fired anytime and if they did protest for higher wages, they can be jailed. They are no different from a Bangladeshi worker or a worker in Abu Dhabi.

Up till now, this clever plan to keep the society ignorant and dumb appears to have worked. But you see it cannot last. Today the only ones who are wealthy in the island are the Lee family and their nepotistic cronies and relatives who rake in the millions, foreign bankers who come in as travelling businessmen and make money as long as they can and then leave. And the workers they employ are very often foreigners themselves who have no real ties to the island and would also leave when it is convenient.

The locals on the other hand have it the worst. They make a living working for the foreign travelling businessmen or serving the Lee Kuan Yew family and his friends who if generous would provide them a good living. But of course nothing is certain. If they don't like you they would let you go.

Although the local children are never taught any Constitution or human rights in Singapore schools, today with greater mobility many have travelled abroad and realize that the German, the Italian, the Finn and the American live very different lives. For one thing, they seem to know their rights. And knowing their rights they appear committed to their countries, wanting to make their lives and that of society better because they love their countries. This loyalty to their country is something that does not exist in Singapore island. Why should anyone be loyal to Singapore when the Lees can pay themselves millions and no one can question them? Why should they live in fear of the police and the state because they have no rights? Why should they live in an island where foreigners strut around like kings and you are no better than a slave to them?

My office is near Walnut Avenue in Fremont city center. I went to eat at Shalimar Restaurant just now and next to it, I saw a Japanese sounding tiny restaurant which recently opened. I saw the man outside and inquired who he was and lo and behold, he was a Chinese Singaporean. Just as ethnic Chinese Singaporeans in the island of Singapore, he too appeared secretive as if he was a criminal and did not want to be found out. I told him I was a Singaporean named Gopalan Nair but he had no idea. He appeared to be like the other ordinary ignorant ethnic Chinese in the island who are only looking out to make some money and nothing else. It was quite clear that he had come to the US not because he was yearning for freedom but because he must have thought he could make some money. From the location of his restaurant and him, I don't think he would be around in business there much longer.

But the younger generation in the island are different. When they travel abroad, I am sure they will see how bad and miserable their lives are under the Lee dictatorship. And this is already causing a mass exodus from the island which is already crippling the Lee oligarchy.

The other bad news for Lee Kuan Yew's son's future is that Western countries are now not only finding ways to manufacture in their own countries cheaply through technological advances, they are also refusing to invest in countries like Singapore which do not allow their citizens democracy and freedom. Today it is bad for publicity reasons to be known as having industries in places like North Korea or even China where the workers are abused to make your products.

I am sure slowly and steadily the denial of democracy and freedom will result in the downfall of these tyrants. That is the direction the world is moving.

Friday, April 22, 2016

In Singapore news Bukit Batok Constituency is to have by elections in May. The incumbent government member has had an affair with a woman and therefore was removed for bad moral character.

Chee Soon Juan, the ever ready opposition politician who has never won any elections in his entire life is nevertheless determined to do it once again. It is reported, he will contest the elections once again against the almighty PAP. Of course he will lose, and we all know that, but he is not bothered by that one bit. The question is by how big a margin this time. One can wonder of course why he continues in this pointless path. He had in the past engaged in public protests to bring about change. I thought that was the right way under the unique political system in that island but apparently he has given that up. Instead he is determined to fight every election knowing full well that he would lose each time.

But strangely in his losing each election, he is in a way helping to destroy the ruling party. It is like this. The vast majority of Singaporeans today are resigned to the fact that you simply cannot live there unless you support the powers above, meaning the ruling PAP. Even to scrape a living in the island, you have to be seen as a supporter. The handful of people who are naïve enough to think otherwise are thrown out of their jobs and have no future whatsoever. As a result of this fascist system of government prevailing in the island, the handful of those who still cherish their independence are simply packing up and leaving en masse for the West. Singapore has the highest brain drain rate in the world.

But each time the ruling party pummel the few opposition politicians at the elections, the numbers emigrating to the West take a spike and hit the roof. So this time again when Chee Soon Juan who will no doubt lose at the coming elections it will actually help to chase even more educated freedom loving Singaporeans out of the island for settlement abroad.

Singapore is a small island city and even a few leaving the island bad enough. But because this government is determined to make it's citizens live no better than the North Koreans without any civil rights whatsoever, English educated Singaporeans are leaving in droves to the West, not prepared to live under a fascist dictatorship. This huge brain drain, the highest rate in the world relative to it's size means it really hurts this regime.

This huge brain drain which continues thanks partly to Chee Soon Juan losing at elections will continue to hurt the ruling party. The ones who pack up and leave are those who refuse to live like a slave under the regime's totalitarian system of government. They are also the very best of that society, the very ones this government finds hard pressed to lose.

Chee Soon Juan is not going to win any election in that island. In fact I won't be surprised if he wouldn't even get 10 % of the vote. But in an uncanny way, he does indirectly serve the cause of freedom by driving anyone with any sense of independence and self respect out of the island. To that extent we have to thank him for that.

The only way you can topple this totalitarian government is through civil disobedience and masse protests and demonstrations; not elections. This regime which has been running the island for the last 50 years and would no doubt be running it for another 50 is a completely fascist regimen. When the state controls every aspect of your life including your jobs, your savings and your housing, and who watches your every move, it is impossible to vote for anyone else. I think Chee Soon Juan knows that too. Although he does not intend it, Chee Soon Juan's losing at elections drives home the message once more that there is no hope at all for democracy in that island. And the hopelessness of the situation will drive even more skilled educated professionals out of the island. And without it's best citizens, naturally the ruling party has to weaken even further.

Singapore will move even closer towards a total fascist state. Very probably 90% of the citizens would vote for this regime, turning it into a mindless conformist society as one would expect in North Korea. With such a society of just followers and no leaders, it cannot expect to achieve any progress. And hence on the path to destruction.

Thursday, April 14, 2016

Singapore is no better, when it comes to human rights than any of the "Stans" in the world, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kirgizstan or even the middle eastern Emirates or North Korea. And in these "Stans" the only ones with any normal life are the rulers. The rest live in fear.

Yesterday in Singapore they arrested a lone peaceful protestor causing no harm to anyone. He was seen quietly holding some anti government and anti judiciary posters. In Singapore to do this is a criminal offense. They don't want anyone criticizing their rulers.

Singapore's state controlled newspaper Straits Times (all news media is state controlled) of today carries a report "Istana Park Protestor in court over 2 charges". The culprit, Yan Jun, a 40 year old Singaporean "had displayed 2 placards including one in Chinese which read "Protest against High Court of Singapore for miscarriage of justice". He protested outside Istana Park, or the Palace of Lee Kuan Yew's son, Singapore's ruler on March 2nd and another occasion near the island's Parliament. See the newspaper report here http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/courts-crime/istana-park-protester-in-court-over-two-charges.

For just peacefully protesting, the government prosecutor has claimed Yan Jun is insane and therefore should be detained at the island's mental asylum.

The authority to arrest this peaceful protestor comes from the Public Order Act of 2009. Under this law, section 2 (a) states that even a single person standing alone peacefully is an "assembly". This statement defies logic, as many things do in that island, but apparently their rulers there don't seem to care how stupid they look!

Under Section 7 of this legislation, anyone intending to protest has to obtain a permit from the island's Police commissioner. But what is not mentioned in this law is that the Police Commissioner has never granted any permit to anyone wanting to protest against the government in the entire history of the island!

This legislation just like a great many others in the island is just another piece of waste paper. It makes no sense because the law requires you to obtain a permit while if you did, you will never get one!

Surprisingly, this demand that anyone who protests against the government has to have his head examined is a routine procedure.

It assumes that anyone who has the audacity to protest against their Singaporean rulers has to be insane (they have labelled the mental disease "persecutory delusional disorder"), otherwise why would anyone do such a thing! It doesn't occur to them at all that all over the world the right to protest is an inalienable right and rather than being insane, it is the most noble of human endeavors.

When Yan objected to being sent to the mental asylum, a natural reaction from anyone in his shoes, the Singaporean prosecutor justified his demand by observing that, because he objects being sent to the mad-house, it proves that he is indeed crazy because " The way Yan talked about his defense suggested there might be something preventing him from accepting and processing information critical to his understanding of the nature and consequences of his action, said the DPP" a medical judgement despite the fact that he has no medical qualification at all!

The reader would note that this sort of thing is painfully reminiscent of Soviet Union under Stalin where every single political opponent was invariably labelled "insane" and sent off the Siberian Gulag.

Naturally the Singaporean judge whose primary responsibilities includes silencing any criticism against the island's rulers roundly agreed that Yan Jun has to be mad and promptly sent him packing to the mental asylum where he is to remain for 2 weeks.

After that he will be jailed or fined. That much is certain. Singapore is one country where you can predict the outcome in such cases before you even step into the courtroom. You were guilty the moment you were arrested. His picture would be prominently displayed in these state controlled newspapers to warn anyone else of the dangers of criticizing the multi billionaire rulers who are above the law and can do anything they want.

Singapore trials such as this are like Alice in Wonderland. Remember the trial of the rabbit who stole the tart. The Queen Judge wanted to deliver the verdict even before they heard any evidence!

As a result of these laws that criminalize any dissent, the entire island of Singapore, or those still remaining there have all been made to realize that they have no means to question authority. This one incident of protest is an extreme rarity in that totalitarian island and there is unlikely to be any more of these for a long time. I understand in North Korea too no one dares to protest.

In the last elections, despite laws like these, in an island where the rulers are openly corrupt in paying themselves millions of dollars as salaries, where there are no fundamental human rights, no rule of law and no free press, 70% of the island voted for this regime. This is a clear signal that the Singaporeans presently living in the island actually prefer to live under a Fascist government where they obediently accept what their government tells them to do.

Of course not all Singaporeans were like this. There were, normal thinking human beings, like anywhere else, but most of them have left the island for settlement abroad for obvious reasons.

The brain drain of ordinary educated Singaporeans to the West is one of greatest in the world.

For an already tiny island with a tiny Singaporean population, this is almost ethnic cleansing on a massive scale, with Singaporeans leaving and the tiny island's population completely transformed into one made up entirely of recent immigrants.

Today Singapore has already lost its identity and is in fact another Communist Chinese city as the foreign population has exceeded that of the local population. This problem is compounded in this tiny island by having the lowest birth rate in the world and the fastest aging population.

Although the government is aware that the dislike that people have to this administration is due greatly to the lack of democracy, except to make speeches urging the local population to remain and have more babies, it does nothing to advance democracy even one bit.

If this repression continues it would only result in the few remaining locals and the foreign population in the island being thoroughly fascist and totally supporting their rulers with only one opinion, that of the state. It is fast becoming another Nazi Germany or Mussolini's Italy where 99% of the people support their dictator.

An island like this is no good for individual thought or ideas. It is an island consumed in fear. Fear of Big Brother and the need to conform and submit. It is a stagnant society like North Korea waiting for our Dear Leader. For competition in this modern world it lacks an essential quality. You cannot orchestrate innovation and change. It has to be spontaneous.

Monday, April 11, 2016

I am not sure whether Lee Kuan Yew's son, today's Singaporean dictator should be pleased or in fact worried by his recent overwhelming victory of 70% vote at the island's 2015 elections.

I think the answer can be found by looking at the Singaporean society today after 50 years of successful brainwashing by his father Lee Kuan Yew to turn them into no better than a "digit" as he has referred to them in the past.

The island has no freedoms at all. No freedom of speech, expression or assembly. All this is banned. The police can do whatever they want. The courts have become an instrument of state power, to punish anyone who criticizes the regime. The island has no free press. The entire media is state controlled.

Yet no Singaporean has any complaints living such a life. There are no protests demanding freedom or democracy. The people remaining in the island, a mere 2 million or so of native Singaporeans, the rest being foreigners who have recently been granted citizenship, have not had a single complaint.

Can you imagine what sort of a person would willingly live in such a political system without complaint? He has either to be an ignorant dummy or he has to be an opportunist or someone who is helpless. And that is exactly what the Singaporean society of today has become.

The tiny minority who are aware of their rights and who refuse to live in such a dictatorship have all left the island for settlement in the West. There is a huge population of Singaporeans in Australia Canada New Zealand and the USA who have left because they find living under a dictatorship unacceptable. Given the already miniscule size the of the island and the population, this has to be worrying.

So it is not these men and women who are capable of thinking independently who have voted overwhelmingly for Lee Kuan Yew's son's dictatorship, for the obvious reason that they have already left the island. It is these men who are either ignorant or those who are incapable of leaving who have voted for this government.

A compliant society such as this is only capable of obeying orders, not independent intelligent thought. A vote from these types does not mean anything at all. Even if their rulers told them that they should crawl on all fours, they would do it without complaint. It is a society without courage, without independent ideas, leadership or spontaneity. It is a society without thinking heads.

In fact the prognosis is even worse than this. As the educated and independent minded thinkers continue to leave the island, Singapore's population of the obedient, submissive and dumb would continue to increase in proportion. I won't be surprised that at the next election in 2020, five years from now, Singaporeans would vote even 90% for Lee dictatorship and became countries such as Syria or Iraq where the ruling government consistently obtain 99% of the votes. What that means of course is that the entire population have been so overcome with fear and helplessness that the only safe thing to do is to vote for whoever happens to be in power!

Lee Kuan Yew's son does not appear to be very wise in his determination to silence his critics. There is no doubt that he has been roundly successful in subjugating his tiny population. By doing so, he is by his actions simply driving away anyone with any ability to think or reason.

In a way I must say that I am glad Lee's son continues on single minded campaign to silence dissent. If he continues doing this, he is literally digging his own grave, because his people would be so dumb and so helpless that the rest of the world peopled by normal human beings with thinking heads would just blow the island away.

Saturday, April 9, 2016

Lee Kuan Yew deceased, has to be credited with Singapore of today, a thoroughly fascist boring and obedient island. It is a society where any divergent views cannot be tolerated. Everyone has to accept the Lee Kuan Yew concept to survive. Which is this. The ruling elite decide laws for you, You are not permitted to openly criticize them, You are not to have strong individual opinion and do things that they do in the West such as openly protesting, You are not permitted to openly make speeches criticizing them or else you will be sued by Kangaroo courts and bankrupted and jailed, You have to appreciate what they do for you such as building shoe-box houses for you to live and trains for you travel, You have to accept that your rulers are wise and full of wisdom and you as a child should obey and not behave as unruly Westerners.

And if you accept this and you have an education, and if you sufficiently show your support for them by volunteering at their state grass roots organizations, you will, if lucky be selected to rule over your fellow men and paid astronomical salaries. Lee Kuan Yew's Peoples Action Party is like a brotherhood. They take very good care of their supporters. Once selected you are taken care for life. If you succeed at elections and become a minister, you get millions of dollars. Even if you lose you get millions because they will give you a similar job at astronomical salaries anyway. And that security and luxury that you have is for life.

On the other hand if you are seen to openly challenge them, you are ruined for life. You are sued jailed and bankrupted. You are thrown out of your job. They will make sure that you will never succeed in the island. You are literally condemned for life.

For a foreigner in Singapore, it would be puzzling to see why this society accepts a life such as this without complaint. It is true, they don't complain. They have not complained for decades. You never see any open protest against the government. You never see any public speeches against the government. You don't see any criticism against the government in print. Yet Singapore is a place where their political leaders are openly corrupt. They pay themselves millions and simply justify the corruption by calling it a salary. The laws make it illegal to protest, to speak publicly or to organize publicly without a license. And licenses are never granted. The entire media in the island is state controlled, including all newspapers, TV and radio stations and magazines. To a foreigner living in the West, such a state of affairs is intolerable. It is like living in Nazi Germany. Yet these people are comfortable with such a life. They have no complaints. They have had no complaints for decades.

Such a brainwashed society has been created through years of Lee Kuan Yew's behavior training practice manuel. Like you would train a dog. Reward of obedience. The stick of disobedience.

And the forced submission and brain washing was assiduously and relentlessly worked upon the society for years as history will tell. I remember firstly JB Jeyaretnam. He was a brilliant lawyer but unfortunately a believer in democracy and therefor against Lee Kuan Yew's fascism paradise. So he was promptly destroyed. The Kangaroo courts were ordered to finish him off with trumped up defamation charges imprisonment and bankruptcy. And then there was Chee Soon Juan. Similar story. And then there were countless others in the island's short history. I too happened to be, when I was there, a thorn on their side. Their Kangaroo judges were, as expected, released upon me. I had to face numerous professional discipline charges as a lawyer. I was suspended from practicing law there for 2 years. Eventually after I left Lee Kuan Yew's island for settlement in America, I was jailed for 3 months when I returned for a holiday and subsequently disbarred in the island as a lawyer. I am of course practicing law in America and am still on the rolls of lawyers in England.

In the last few years with the advent of the Internet, the disaffected began to criticize in blogs. But that too has stopped. Of course in my case, they cant do anything to me while I am in the US writing this blog as they have no power to stop this. However if I wrote this within Singapore, I would of course be arrested and put away. Others recently within the island who wrote critical blogs have all been silenced. Last year, Roy Ngerng a young man who criticized the government on how they run the state pension fund known as the CPF was sued for defamation and ordered to pay $150,000.00 dollars. But they weren't really interested in the money as is always they case. The purpose is to permanently silence the critic because they don't want any criticism. In the case of Roy Ngerng, this was achieved by allowing him to pay the sum in instalments of a mere $150.00 a month over 20 years, and then the amount is increased to $1,000.00 a month until the amount is fully paid. You see the purpose of doing this of course. In this way Roy Ngerng will be shut out for good for the reminder of this life! The moment he criticizes, they will either bankrupt him or arrest him.

Even more recently 2 persons, one Australian and one Singaporean were arrested and charged for sedition for having written blogs in their The Real Singapore. The woman an Australian pleaded guilty and has been sent to jail for 10 months. As for the Singaporean her husband he has pleaded not guilty and is facing trial as we speak. Of course he would be found guilty and sent away. What else can one expect in Kangaroo Courts.

All this is done on purpose. It is done not only to silence any critic. But it is primarily done to mould human behavior and to tailor the brain into the way the state wants you to think. The purpose is to clearly instill in the minds of the public that opposition to the regime is futile. You cannot succeed. If you are wise, you should remember which side of the bread is buttered (Lee Kuan Yew's often quoted phrase). And this purpose has handsomely succeeded for the sort of people who still remain in the island.

But the Singaporean regime continues to pay a very heavy price for their forced repression.

I say, still remaining in the island. This is because this whole idea of brainwashing which they adopt is something which will ultimately fail. Fascism is not a concept that is likely to succeed in this modern age. Look at Saudi Arabia. Anyone who criticizes the regime is arrested and punished and the general prevailing philosophy is to submit and obey. But at what cost. The oil revenue, their only means of survival is depleting and young Saudis are either leaving or are getting emboldened. It is worse for the rulers in Singapore island. There is no oil, cheap or otherwise, and their only means of revenue is what the islanders make or through foreign investment in the island. And worse, the island is very small and the population tiny.

On both grounds the island is faltering. Increasing numbers of English educated Singaporeans are being being disillusioned. They realize there is no need for them to live this way. Why should anyone have to live under a fascist regime and accept that their rulers are always right? The reality today is that ever increasing young men are leaving for settlement abroad. At the same time the lack of any social security safety net causes people not to have any children. The island has the lowest birth rate in the world. And the rate of emigration is also highest in the world, an unbearable situation for an already tiny society. Due to these multitude of problems the tiny local native population continues to shrink and being replaced by recently arrived economic migrants from China whose numbers have overtaken the local population.

The problem that Singapore faces is that the locals have no respect for their government. How could they when their own leaders are openly corrupt and unashamedly justify their corruption and behave like thugs against their own population. And how could the state justify the denial of fundamental human rights such as free speech and expression or the lack of the rule of law as can be seen in the hundreds of politically motivated verdicts.

In the end the society slowly becomes one with a single ideology, that of the government. That is the only way to survive. In Hitler's Nazi Germany you had to support Hitler. In Singapore you are left with no choice but to support the rulers. This is fascism where no contrarian opinion is tolerated. Even if there are pockets of independent thinkers, they are slowly eliminated while the island marches to one that has only one way to think, that of the government.

Such a society cannot succeed in this modern world where invention innovation and idealism is what drives nations. Whereas Singapore is moving backwards into a North Korea in South East Asia. If Singapore is able to continue to survive today, it is only because foreign countries wanting a cheap compliant labor find such a society attractive for investment. But even they are now realizing that there is no need to use such compliant labor to succeed. Many western companies are either deciding to manufacture in their home countries or moving to countries which are democratic as such labor is more more appreciated, more politically correct and gives greater value to their manufactured products. In the US, a label showing "Made in the US" sells better than "Made in Bangladesh" because it was made with decent wages and decent working conditions. As countries around the world begin to realize that Singapore workers are treated no better than North Korea, so will their products decrease in value.

As long as the Singaporean rulers refuse to allow democracy in the island or allow their people the right of self determination, it will continue to slide towards lesser productivity and competitiveness because there is only one philosophy in the island, that of Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore.

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About Me

Determined to find the Truth.
Born Singapore, educated Winstedt School 2 (next to Monks Hill in Newton, Singapore) Raffles Institution, National Service, some travel in Europe, then law studies England, return to Singapore, practiced for 10 years, active Workers Party member, stood elections 1988 and 1991 in Singapore, was harassed and persecuted by Lee Kuan Yew for my political beliefs, left for USA, obtained asylum and admitted California State Bar, practice law ever since in Fremont California near San Francisco. Relinquished Singapore citizenship 2005 because I was not prepared to permit Lee Kuan Yew to unjustly retain my CPF funds if I remained Singapore Citizen. On principle, the only correct thing for me to do was to give it up, for my CPF funds. I am an American Citizen as of 2004.